Wijk aan Zee 2007 – final impressions

1/29/2007 – Wijk aan Zee is over, with an exciting finish that saw three players tie for first. Radjabov and Topalov were able to maintain their top positions with a draw in the final round. Aronian was able to join them with a victory over Tiviakov, and world champion Vladimir Kramnik improved his position with a win over Loek van Wely. Commentary and pictures.

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Vishy Anand vs David Navara: ½-½In yet another Anti-Marshall, Navara activated his pieces at the cost
of a pawn sacrifice. At first sight it looked as though White could consolidate,
but once Black produced 26…Rd3! It was clear that he had enough play, and Anand
offered the draw with his next move.

Vladimir Kramnik before the start of his final game in Wijk aan Zee 2007

Final standings

Statistics

The biggest performers in Wijk aan Zee 2007 were, naturally, the winners Teimour
Radjabov (performance 2827), Levon Aronian (2826) and Veselin Topalov (2823).
Vladimir Kramnik played 29 points above his nominal rating of 2766 for a performance
of 2795. Anand will lose a few Elo points by performing at 2768, and Peter Svidler
will gain some with his 2743 performance.

The draw statistics were normal in Group A (61%) but positively low in the
B and especially the C group, where people were at each others throats. In Group
C there were more black wins (30) then victories with the white pieces (28).

See also

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

See also

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.